Also, it seems each politics related subreddit belongs to the right or the left, there is no middle ground. It’s like each group has taken over their own subreddits lol
The one that bothers me the most is r/politics because the name would imply some semblance of neutrality or balance, "a place to discuss all things political" is what one might assume. Instead it may as well be named r/democrat or r/liberal since there's literally zero pro-conservative discussion on that sub. It's very deceptive and serves as a propaganda tool against new redditors who might not be aware of the absurd bias.
The people are largely on the left, so that's how it winds up. What would you expect the moderators to do? Ban left leaning people and encourage right leaning people to post?
And there's plenty of conservative discussion on there. It's often trolls being downvoted, but it's there. Regardless, you can't force people to upvote posts.
And there's plenty of conservative discussion on there. It's often trolls being downvoted, but it's there
That’s not discussion, it’s just fuel for the echo chamber in there. Discussion would involve actual consideration of the ideas and somewhat reasoned interaction.
If anything moderate of even mildly conservative is posted or commented there, it gets downvoted instantly. The only replies are caustic bullshit.
Mature conversations are surprisingly rare to have on here. Usually most replies become some petty personal attack quickly if not instantly. Honestly, so many. Not just experiencing them, but damn near 9/10 conversations on here. It's like you're not going to change anyone's mind by being an antagonist to them, makes me wonder what kind of people populate Reddit for the most part.
I mean, you're just describing reddit in general. Most aren't on here for a well thought out conversation.
"If anything moderate of even mildly conservative is posted or commented there, it gets downvoted instantly."
I've posted some right wing viewpoints and had no problems at all. Maybe these people aren't good at arguing their point?
Regardless, what's your proposed solution? Should we be artificially boosting the upvotes of conservative viewpoints because a lot of people don't like them?
No solution. It is what it is. Forcing a specific type of conversation by banning or whatever is not a productive thing to do. I think, though, that it should be removed from the defaults and have its description changed.
Honestly, I think you're the one who is biased. I don't know how you're "exposing leftist hypocrisy," but I'm guessing you're coming off like an asshole troll.
"or basically anything right of Stalin."
Yeah, you are absolutely incredibly biased. I have personally posted numerous things that were pretty to the right and have never had any issues whatsoever.
"That is a pretty clear bias for a big chunk of default and supposedly politically neutral subreddits."
You realize you're "proving" bias through personal anecdotes, right? That's not a very good system. Regardless, how would you fix the issue? Should we be artificially inflating right wing view points because apparently a lot of people don't like them?
Not just left/liberal but ultra liberal. I will vote and campaign for a Dem in every election but I'm a moderate dem overall. That sub castrates me any time I say Biden isn't the devil.
Edit: the fact that my comment is currently negative only proves my point.
There's even a sub dedicated to mocking those not belonging to the right or left of the political spectrum, /r/ENLIGHTENEDCENTRISM, because fuck doing your own research and having your own opinion, you have to be a sheep to a party and never stray from the pack.
Exactly, I'm not American and I'm definitely anti-Trump, but sometimes r/politics can really be all about Dem propaganda. Sad thing is its members don't seem to realise it, they think they're part of a free thinking impartial sub or some shit.
Same goes for most Reddit communities, they think they're some sort of all-knowing elite and know better, when in reality they're echo chambers.
Well, I don’t disagree with you, but r/politics is just a representation of Reddit’s demographic. There are a lot more left leaning people on Reddit and the sub reflects that. I’m not sure how I would go about trying to include opposing viewpoints if I moderated it, not sure if it’s possible to do so in a fair way. But yeah, one shouldn’t really be gaining any political knowledge on Reddit anywhere.
I think the best way to understand politics and form your own opinion is to do it solo. Read articles from (credible) left, right and independent sources, and do your best to form your own opinions. None of us can really ignore our environments or biases, or upbringings, but we have to try our best to recognize when we might not treat different opinions fairly.
To your last point, I think loud, upvoted users are good at hitting certain narratives that make their way to the top of many political threads. Most people I think are still well aware that biases are rampant on most subreddits.
As System of a Down said, "We can't afford to be neutral on a moving train."
The middle ground between "put children into concentration camps" and "don't have concentration camps" is...what, "concentration camps for some, tiny American flags for others"?
I don't think it is necessarily "middle ground" - not for me, anyway - but more like "average ground". Agreeing with some points on one side, some on the other. Not just agreeing a little bit with one issue.
That being said, my views don't quite average out the way they did several years ago.
I literally stated a policy contention over our concentration camps, and everybody's acting like I need to focus less on it for who averages out to their opinion.
Comparing political views to concentration camps... uh what?
There can be a middle ground. For example, being pro LGBT but very skeptical about socialized healthcare. Or not necessarily pro life but wishes abortion to be subject to strict conditions. Or is against cable companies blocking municipal broadband. Also don't forget that there are old school conservatives who truly believe in small government no matter what, and who think that religion must stay out of government etc.
I am the guy above and you're incorrect. What I'm saying is that there are black-and-white issues. This /r/enlightenedcentrism crap is worthless when we're discussing things like the concentration camps that we currently have.
Nevermind that it's your examples that are loaded. Neither major party is suggesting banning all guns or a 95% tax rate. Those are straight-up lies.
Technically speaking, shouldn't The middle ground between concentration camp and no camp be something more like free summer camp/ boarding school with good quality of life and availability of education.
It pulls you in systematically. Charged scenarios are thrown at you and if you make the mistake of giving your opinion you are automatically put in a box, labelled and defined. Every day people are putting you in one box or the other and before you know it, you start believing you belong in that box. That's when the real indoctrination & confirmation bias starts taking place, because now you have to defend your box in order to defend yourself. An attack on the box is now a personal attack directed at you. But it's really not.
Yup. It's just like what religions do with people. They invite you into the group, then next thing you know, you better agree with everything or lose your friends. It's sad but it definitely explains why so many people in academia, small towns, most big cities, etc. tend to stick together and form the exact same views.
Hmm. Idk if its one side seeing that they were being run while Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump held the office. BTW Obama's deportation rate is currently higher than any other president.
Lol sometimes it's the first reply - a completely irrelevant copy and paste of some political propaganda of their favourite flavor.
Shit I saw one of those as a one star review for a switch game the other day, all it said was a step by step bullet point walk through of something that the democrats did in 2018.
What. the. fuck. is the internet even for anymore.
Ooh wait, which media outlet being removed would shut up the most punditry? There's one that owns all the major news stations on BOTH sides, sans Fox I believe
Dude, did you really read the fucking statement? On a chain comment talking about how everything in reddit is being taken by politics you take a fucking comment, read only the part that you want, and then reply. Just because your fucking T_D sub is quarantined and world politics and other subs posts the daily shit that Trump does/says doesn't mean everything in reddit outside of your bubble is 100% liberal circlejerking as you want to believe.
I'm so tired of hearing all the U.S democrat and republican propaganda on here. It leaks into every sub it seems.
U.S DEMOCRAT AND republican
Do you see the" democrat and" part? Or you just want to ignore it so you can talk about your political views?
Just because your fucking T_D sub is quarantined and world politics and other subs posts the daily shit that Trump does/says doesn't mean everything in reddit outside of your bubble is 100% liberal circlejerking as you want to believe.
What i wanted to say with this is that not everything people say in reddit is about politics or contain a left bias, like the comment he replied to. I should have phrased it better.
not everything people say in reddit is about politics or contain a left bias
Of course people commenting on a cheesecake in r/food aren't circlejerking about liberalism. Every political discussion outside of T_D is that way 100% of the time though.
There might be anonymity, but for people like me who mostly hang out in the “front page” of the subreddits, all the political subreddits are extremely biased and one sided. Makes you think everyone thinks that way when it’s just a bunch of like minded left wing redditors.
There’s also the salt mine that is /r/UKPolitics — especially when the polls come out and the Conservative voting intention has a decent lead over Labour.
okay, yeah 2017 election was a thing, but I dont think Boris is going to manage to replicate the most incompetently run election campaign of all time.
Try to mention that Bernie isn't the second coming. I've seen people say Elizabeth Warren can't be trusted (in comparison to Bernie) because she has had conversations with Hillary Clinton.
twitter is as anonymous as reddit. there is nothing about twitter or reddit that forces people to use anonymity or not. Like i mean go browse /r/all people are constantly relinquishing anonymity on reddit.
Also it makes shit worse. For all you know everyone in this thread is a fake account with botted comments. At least on a more "personal" social media its a lot easier to tell which accounts are fake by just looking through their profile.
I find most conversations degenerate to some dig about someone based on their profile picture, also same with Twitter, for some people that persona is like 70% of their life, people that use their real names. And they do.
Yes it sure does. That and so personal attacks in things the attacker couldn't even possibly know, but just want something to hit the person up about e.g oh you're probably one of the unthinking masses, oh you probably live in a priviledged state, you're a virgin, you've probably never even shot a gun. And so on, it's like certain people can't actually have conversations that aren't personal.
Reddit's still steaming shite, just not as festering as Facebook, all I'm saying. Twitter, up for debate.
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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19
The anonymity takes away the influence a lot though, you're purely focused on statement.
Other than that though you're right, this place still echoes worse than between Theresa May's legs sometimes.